In this file photo, Witold Banka, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), attends a press conference at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. (AP )

WASHINGTON, Jan 9, (AP): The U.S. government did not pay the more than $3.6 million due to the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2024, making good on a long-running threat anchored in unhappiness with the global watchdog’s handling of cases involving Chinese swimmers and others.

Those funds, normally distributed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, represent about 6% of WADA’s annual budget.

WADA statutes say representatives of countries that don’t pay are not eligible to sit on the agency’s top decision-making panels. U.S. drug czar Rahul Gupta is listed as a member of the WADA executive committee.

Gupta’s office did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.

When Gupta directed his office to send the balance of a yearly contribution in 2022, he did so with reservations, along with a letter saying the U.S. absence at the time from key policymaking positions was “a sorry state of affairs.” Half of WADA’s budget is covered by the International Olympic Committee, with the other half covered by governments across the world, which receive 50% of the spots on key WADA governing committees.

The U.S. contribution is double that of Canada, the home country for WADA puts in the second most money among the more than 180 countries that contribute.

The funding fight has been going on for at least the last six years. Dissatisfied with the handling of the Russian doping scandal, the first Trump White House started asking for reforms with the potential of tying them to its annual payment. More recently, WADA’s handling of cases involving 23 Chinese swimmers has been a focal point of criticism.

A government study that came out in 2020 concluded Americans didn’t get their money’s worth from the contribution. Shortly after, Congress gave the ONDCP discretion to withhold future funding.

In between, tensions have grown between WADA, the U.S., and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which runs the drug-fighting program in the United States.

“Unfortunately, the current WADA leaders left the U.S. with no other option after failing to deliver on several very reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of WADA’s operations” in the wake of the Chinese doping saga, USADA CEO Travis Tygart said.